Contagion
by barricadeboyznthehood
Summary: Five times the Graceland household tried to deal with Mike's sickness.


Day 1

6:00 a.m. Mike Warren's alarm played a popular mellow tune that lured him from sleep. He felt congested, achy and exhausted. He sat up in bed and his head rushed with pressure.

"Oh God," He murmured, "Please, don't let me be sick." Briggs had just assigned him to a premiere case after Bello closed. He was doing so well; he felt he was finally garnering some respect from the team. Sure, he had his slip ups but one of those slip ups shouldn't be him confined to a bed, stuffed-up, nauseous and delirious. He had a fever and Mike was ready to just take some aspirin and try to function normally.

He fell back asleep for an hour and woke up at seven. Mike stumbled into the kitchen, his head still pounding and hot, his limbs heavy, and his feet shuffling. His face was pale and flushed all at the same time.

"Just this once," Jakes called out to Mike as he opened up the fridge, swirling the remaining orange juice in his carton, "We need you on the field, ready to go." He gave Mike a pointed "But, I'll know when you're faking, brah."

Jakes returned to reading his paper before heading into the costume room to don his normal Jamaican attire.

"Thanks; good luck with the birds." Mike called out, taking the orange juice and pouring it into a cup.

Jakes waved at Mike as he disappeared into the room and eventually left to meet up with the bird smugglers.

Mike took the aspirin and washed it down with the orange juice. He decided to leave Jakes a post –it note of gratitude on the fridge.

He wondered if maybe some fresh air would help him, but Mike didn't make it outside, he collapsed on the couch.

"Jakes told me you were sick." Lauren told Mike, poking him awake, a look of wary disgust on her face, "I can't deal with sickness, not on my last week." She reminded him, "I don't care if you only have a low fever or a splitting headache, I don't want to catch anything you have or have the faintest idea of contamination in this house."

Her blue eyes narrowed on Mike's glassy ones and he nodded lazily, still a little woozy and nauseous.

"Mm-hmm. Yes Ma'am." Mike muttered.

"Don't call me Ma'am." Lauren sneered, her hand now on her hip, "Get up. Go to Donn-your room." She stated, still not used to the fact that Donny wouldn't be a part of Graceland anymore.

Mike nodded, sitting up and breathing steadily, "Give me a minute."

Lauren helped Mike up, letting him support himself for a moment until she dropped him off in Donny's room. She set a glass of orange juice on the nightstand with a coaster.

"There isn't any more orange juice but there may be some stomach relaxers in the medicine cabinet. I have to go; I'm supposedly in Ukraine right now tending to my alcoholic father. Maybe I'll see you around." She wasn't so sure if she'd be back in time. "Get better, Warren."

"Dude, is he really sick?" Mike heard Johnny's attempt to whisper this question to Jakes.

"Yeah, man. I think he has a low fever. I haven't checked on him but obviously something's wrong if the dudes in his room and Lauren didn't kick him out thinking he'd contaminate the image of Donny." Jakes snorted and Mike could imagine him rolling his eyes.

"We gotta do something, brother." Johnny slapped Jakes in the chest and Jakes shook his head.

"Correction, you gotta do something." Jakes paused, "I did my part. I gave him the last of my orange juice; you know how that shit is with me man."

Johnny gave him a blank stare in return and Jakes sighed.

"It'd be like you giving him the last of your taco from Hector's." He explained.

"Ah," Johnny's eyes lit up in recognition and he gave a serious nod, "Okay, I'll do something."

This something was to bring Mike a blanket, a thermometer, The History of the FBI, another carton of orange juice, a bucket and some water.

He placed all the contents on Mike's bed or the appropriate places.

"Are you hot or cold?" Johnny asked with a concerned look on his face as Mike grimaced at Johnny's voice.

"Aspirin wore off, huh?" He said in a matter of fact tone at Mike's grimace. He handed him the pill bottle.

Mike took the pill with the water and hushed out a "Thanks."

"You really look like shit, man." Johnny pursed his lips, "I mean, when you get sick even the tiniest bit, you get sick!"

Mike coughed, "How'd it go today?" Johnny had taken over Mike's position in the case he was supposed to work with Briggs.

"Eh, alright," Johnny paused, "I think Briggs wanted you there. I mean, I know I'm a legend but he wanted to show you the big boy ropes."

Mike nodded in agreement, "I see." He looked a little worried, "Briggs won't yell at me, will he?"

"No, man, no." Johnny shook his head, "If he does, let me know or better yet let Charlie know."

Mike smiled at this and patted Johnny's hand, "Thanks, Johnny."

"No problem, Mikey. I'll come back in a little bit, alright?"

Mike nodded and drifted off to sleep.

Day 2

"Hey Levi, I heard you were still sick!" Paige's teasing voice called out to him as Mike's face pushed into the pillow.

"Yeah," Mike whispered his voice rough and still groggy with sleep. He didn't have time to correct her on his actual name.

"Well, I brought you something extra special so you can pass the time!" Paige's expression was one of pure joy and excitement.

Mike sat up, his back resting against the headboard, "What is it?" He asked, genuinely intrigued.

"It's…." Paige began, something behind her back, "A stuffed animal to keep you company!" She held out a tiny brown bear with a bowtie on it, "His name is Jimmy. After Jimmy Stewart, I've had him since I was little and he always used to help me when I was sick."

Mike seemed touched and amused by this, letting out a sleepy smile, "Thanks Paige, this…..this is great." He paused, "I'll try not to get Jimmy sick, hopefully he's had his shots." He teased.

"Of course," Paige winked, grinning at Mike's acceptance of Jimmy. "Well, I gotta go. Some girls I met down at the beach want to go surfing." She continued, "I heard you're getting better at it. Your record is almost ten seconds on the board!" She teased.

"Almost, I'm at 9.5." He said sarcastically with a grin. Paige was easy to talk to and out-going.

Paige looked over her shoulder but then moved closer to the bed, "Oh, and another thing to help you get through this nasty sickness…"She whispered, moving closer until she kissed his cheek and affectionately ruffled his hair before she handed him Jimmy.

"Get better, Levi!" She called out to him as she walked into the hallway and shut his door.

Mike didn't have the heart or the voice to correct her.

A knock came at the door. Mike turned over in his sleep and fluffed up the pillows in case anyone was visiting.

"Hey." Charlie called out to him as she seemed to be a little cautious entering the room. He categorized this as she didn't like sick people in general or someone close to her died from an illness.

"You can come in." He said a little wryly, his voice strained.

"Thanks." She chuckled lowly, "I'm never sure if sick people want to be bothered."

"I only have a fever and congestion." He reassured her.

"But, Johnny said when you get sick you really get sick." She relayed the message once more to him and he nodded in agreement.

She moved closer and sat down on the edge of the bed. She moved in closer and put a cold washcloth on his forehead. She began to hum a song.

"What're you humming?" He asked her, his glassy eyes meeting Charlie's.

"A song my mother used to sing." She whispered, her eyes glassy or maybe she was close to crying.

"It's pretty." He whispered.

"Thanks." She pressed the washcloth to his forehead once more before letting it rest there. "I brought you a book." She said, holding it out for him. It was Sebastian Faulk's A Week in December. "I don't know, it seemed like something you'd like."

"I've heard about him." He smiled and he felt Charlie's lips press against the part of his forehead that wasn't covered by the washcloth. He suddenly felt warm again.

As she continued to hum, Mike drifted off to sleep until he woke up several hours later to find Briggs in his room.

"Missed you out there, would have loved to see what you could have done." Briggs told him, not angry at all that Mike was sick, just a little disappointed that Mike didn't get a chance to prove himself.

"So, I know you haven't eaten in a while and by request of Charlie, we have homemade chicken soup." He paused, "Don't tell me you're suddenly a vegetarian because I am not eating all of this." He laughed and put the tray with the bowl of soup and water down on his nightstand.

He pulled up a chair to sit on and patted Mike's shoulder, "I'm not going to feed you; I'm not a papa bear." He teased while Mike laughed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Where is everyone?" Mike hesitantly asked.

"Jakes is still out, Lauren's actually in the Ukraine, Paige is still at the beach oh and she hopes you and Jimmy are best friends, Johnny's in the kitchen and Charlie said she'd be in here in a bit." He relayed to Mike before he handed him the tray.

Mike took careful sips of the soup, smiling as the warmth traveled through his body and the sweetness hit his tongue, "This is good, you make it?"

"I don't only make pancakes." Briggs said with a proud grin, "Grandmother's recipe and no, you can't have the secret formula." He chuckled.

Mike smiled and continued to eat as Briggs sat in the chair.

There was a knock at the door and Charlie peered into the room.

"Hey, are you feeling any better?" She asked.

"Yeah, now that I have some soup." Mike chuckled, his one hand around Jimmy the bear's waist and the other feeding himself chicken soup.

"Good." Charlie seemed instantly relieved as she walked in.

"Read me some of this?" Mike asked, gesturing to the book and Briggs handed it to her. "Eyes too tired." He explained.

Charlie nodded, smiling that Mike actually wanted to read her choice for him.

She began, "Five O'clock and freezing, pile drives and jackhammers were blasting into the wasteland by the side of West Cross Route in Shepherd's bush. With a bare ten months to the scheduled opening of Europe's largest urban shopping center, the sand-covered site was showing only skeletal girders and joists under red cranes, though a peppermint façade had already been tacked I to the eastward side…." Charlie continued, slowly feeling herself being called to join Mike in bed with Jimmy while Briggs watched and listened from his chair.

Yes, Mike was starting to feel a lot better.

[* A.N: Based on the Graceland Kink prompt shown here: . ?view=9491&posted=1 ]


End file.
